What with vampires being so allergic to sunlight and all, why didn’t they think of this before? Head for Barrow, Alaska, where for a time (not actually 30 days, but never mind), the sun never comes up. That’s the premise of this graphic novel adaptation, which fancies Barrow as a tiny town of under 500 residents, most of whom split when the lights go out. The real Barrow’s population is close to 5000, mostly Eskimos. Maybe the vampires started off with ethnic cleansing, because everyone in town is white like the swirling snow that hinders the townfolk but later provides cover. The sheriff (Josh Hartnett) is the standard-issue leader type, and there’s a side plot where his ex-girlfriend (Melissa George) winds up sharing his space. Nothing like the threat of being bled dry to heal old wounds.
A lot of vampire movies romanticize their subjects, or at least give them a decent backstory. This is more like a zombie movie, though. True, the bloodsuckers are a lot smarter—we hear them scheme in their Eastern European voices (subtitled)—and stronger. But they seem to have few goals other than to wipe out the humans. Hence, as in many a zombie flick, the scared Barrowites who survive the initial massacre hole up in the buildings that they hope will provide the most protection, and the evildoers pick off the weak or unlucky. I kept wondering why it didn’t bother them to have all the blood dripping off their face; they just chow down and leave it there. Guess it looks all badass.
The setting is the one original element here, and more could have been done with that, like making some of the characters Inuit. You don’t get as much of a sense of everyone trying to wait out the days until daylight as I would have thought. It isn't as dark either; I guess all the events take place during the twilight that remains. I realize that it won’t do having it be pitch black the whole time, but a couple of scenes where the characters are truly blinded would have been scary. There’s more interest from a suspense standpoint than if the film is seen from a strict horror viewpoint. The ending, in which the gained knowledge of the vampires’ ways is used against them, is slightly above average, but the movie as a whole isn’t.
IMDB link
reviewed 10/26/07
No comments:
Post a Comment